1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a molding apparatus for molding a fibrous material mainly containing waste paper in a desirable extruded shape, which is widely usable for fabricating agricultural materials, for example, an agricultural fertilizer such as compost, a manure absorbing/holding material, a seedbed material, and a growing land material for growing crops such as a seedling material for cultivating mushrooms.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, waste paper has been frequently re-used for resource preservation, for example, as compost in the agricultural field. In this application use, there have been proposed various methods: for example, (a) a method of producing compost in which waste paper is treated by a dry-type fiber loosening machine such that fibers constituting the waste paper are loosened, to form cottony regenerated pulp; the cottony regenerated pulp is mixed with plants (fallen leaves or fallen twigs), and is suitably adjusted in its water content by the addition of water; and the resultant mixed pulp is fermented, thus producing compost (see the process diagram in FIG. 14), and (b) a method of using the above-described regenerated pulp as a manure absorbing material for absorbing fertilizer which has been excessively sprayed over orchard or lowland field.
The cottony regenerated pulp with fibers being dry-loosened has the following features (advantages and disadvantages):
(1) to repel water (hydrophobic),
(2) to generate dust, and
(3) to be small in specific gravity.
As compared with the wet-type fiber loosening process, the dry-type fiber loosening process has the following features:
(4) to form regenerated pulp containing long fibers,
(5) to form regenerated pulp containing a large amount of powdery paper,
(6) to form regenerated pulp in which non-loosened fibers remain in a large amount, and
(7) to eliminate a waste water treatment equipment, to reduce installation cost, and to make compact the size of the apparatus.
These features become advantageous or disadvantageous in accordance with the above-described applicable field of regenerated pulp. For example, when the pulp is used as regenerated paper, the non-loosened fiber portion must be suppressed within 0.1% or less for making smooth the surface of the paper, so that the feature (6) becomes disadvantageous. On the contrary, when the pulp is used as compost, the non-loosened fiber portion enhances the manure holding property, so that the feature (6) rather becomes advantageous.
In the case of producing compost using the regenerated pulp, there occurs a problem in which because of the feature (1) to repel water, the regenerated pulp is separated from the supplied water and is thus difficult to absorb water. The regenerated pulp can absorb water by compressing it in water; however, in this case, it is difficult to uniformly adjust the water content in the produced compost, and the process takes a lot of labor, resulting in the lack of usability in terms of the practical use.
In the case where the regenerated pulp is sprayed as a manure holding material, for example in orchard, the pulp tends to be scattered by wind because of the feature (3) to be small in specific gravity. This is disadvantageous in reducing the amount of the pulp acting as the manure holding material, and further, it possibly causes dust pollution due to the dust of pulp.
In the case where the regenerated pulp is used as a seedling material for growing mushrooms by breeding of fungus such as growing of "Shiitake" (one kind of mushrooms), it possibly becomes the medium of bacteria depending on the past history of waste paper before regeneration. Consequently, the fiber-loosened pulp must be subjected to bactericidal processing before being used as a seedling material.
As described above, the dry-type fiber-loosened pulp has the advantages in terms of the dry type fiber-loosening process (for example, the features (6) and (7)), but in the application use to the agricultural field, it has problems to be solved, for example, in terms of the water absorbing ability, in generation of dust, and in addition of the bactericidal/disinfection process.
On the other hand, from the viewpoint of agricultural machines, there has been developed an apparatus for soft-swelling/breaking the texture (organ) of a vegetable fibrous material or animal fibrous material by a high temperature/high pressure processing (Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication No. SHO 52-1118). The soft-swelled/broken product has been used as a material for seedling culture and a feed for domestic animal and fowl. FIG. 15 is a vertical sectional view showing the construction of the apparatus of this type. In this figure, reference numeral 151 designates a main body of the apparatus; 152 is a screw; 153 is a material throwing port; 154 is a discharge opening portion; 155 is a cutter; and 156 is an enlarged diameter portion. In this apparatus, a screw blade portion 157 having a specified diameter is continuous to a taper screw blade portion 158 having a diameter gradually reduced in the direction of nearing the discharge portion side. The fibrous material is fed by rotation of the screw 152, and is simultaneously compressed, and thus the soft-swelled/broken product of the fibrous material is discharged from the discharge opening portion 154.
The apparatus performs the heating bactericidal processing while compressing the fibrous material, so that the above-described problem of the cottony regenerated pulp can be somewhat solved; however, this apparatus is intended to only perform the soft-swelling/breaking of the fiber texture (organ), and thereby it can soften the material but cannot solidify the produced material.
In the case where dry-type fiber-loosened cottony paper is used as a fibrous material, there occurs a problem that it is easily scattered by wind when being sprayed on soil because of its small specific gravity. In view of the application use in the agricultural mechanical field, it is desired to mold the fibrous material.